It’s no secret that publishing blog posts consistently is important. But it’s hard to find the time to research, edit, publish and promote. Have you ever wondered how to write blog posts faster, and still have them be good?

Whether it’s twice a month, once a week, or even more frequently, the more consistent you are with your high quality blog posts the more your readers will return and bring their business with them.

At the same time there’s nothing worse than visiting a blog and seeing the last blog post is from a year ago. Your prospect might be thinking “If the blog is out of date, I wonder if the rest of the site is out of date?”

This post will help.

With a few shortcuts, a few tricks and a bit of focus you can learn how to write a blog post fast – in less than 60 minutes!

Let me show you:

1. Really Quick Research
2. Get your Shitty First Draft
3. Super Fast Editing
4. A Publishing Routine
5. Follow a Promotion Plan

1. Really Fast Research for a Blog Post Topic

“If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.” Stephen King

When you read “research” do you want to run away screaming?

For most people, researching great blog post topics to write about is about as much fun as doing your taxes. The good news is there are quick and dirty shortcuts for your blog writing process that work.

When it comes to blogging and getting more traffic: if it’s working, keep doing it. In other words, if one of your blog posts went viral, use that topic again. If a Tweet got 130 impressions, retweet it.

When it comes to blogging and getting more traffic: if it’s working, keep doing it. Click To Tweet

Here’s how you do that with your blog post topics.

1) Start with your Google Analytics. Scroll down on the left menu to “Behaviour”, click“Overview” and look at your top three blog posts. For whatever reason, these got the lion’s share of traffic.

Choose one of those topics and write your next blog post on a related topic. For example: if one of your top posts is “The hidden cost of workplace conflict”, your next one could be “3 super easy ways to reduce workplace conflict.”

2) Next, go to BuzzSumo and type in that topic (“workplace conflict”). Find blog posts that have been shared the most and take inspiration from their headlines.

3) Finally, type your blog topic into your search bar. As you type, Google will suggest endings to your typing. These are based on query volume and can give you a clue for what to write for your next blog topic.

For example, you start typing “workplace conflict” and Google suggests “workplace conflict examples” Ah! You could start a blog post with a scenario of workplace conflict from your consulting work.

When you scroll to the bottom of the search results page in Google you’ll get more suggestions:

2. Get your Shitty First Draft

Now comes the fun part. Start writing! You get to write your draft and not care how good it is! Let me explain…

There are two things that stall out most bloggers and authors when they’re trying to write high quality blog posts: 1) thinking their work has to be perfect and 2) trying to edit before finishing the first draft. Not a recipe for the best blog posts.

There are two things that stall out most bloggers and authors: 1) thinking their work has to be perfect and 2) trying to edit before finishing the first draft. Click To Tweet

Instead, use a simple writing template to get the words flowing fast and keep your thoughts in order, AND avoid editing or looking up references until the draft is done. From blog post outline to full pages of writing, before you know it you’ll have what author Anne Lamott famously calls the “shitty first draft” of your blog article.

You can download the writing template here.

3. Super Fast Blog Post Editing

“Don’t focus on having a great blog. Focus on producing a blog that’s great for your readers.” Brian Clark, Copybloggers

Editing can be fun. The hard work of writing your blog post is behind you and the trick now is edit quickly and be done. Set yourself a time limit for editing. It’s amazing how much you can improve your post in 5 minutes or less. Sure, you could spend an hour thinking of clever analogies or searching for the perfect images – but that’s not as important as getting it done.

Fussing over some sentence or punctuation will just slow down the blog writing process and make it less likely that your blog comes out on a regular basis. You can always spend more time editing your next book.

4. A Blog Post Publishing Routine

“Don’t try to plan everything out to the very last detail. I’m a big believer in just getting it out there: create a minimal viable product or website, launch it, and get feedback.” Neil Patel

Once you’ve written a blog post, publishing is simply a mechanical exercise. Don’t waste time on this. If you’re using WordPress (as of the time of writing, more than 43% of all websites do), log in, open a new post, copy/paste your text, add the main image, add tags, check your Yoast or other SEO plug-in, set the date to publish on and hit “Publish.”

This is not the time to explore some cool widget or learn the HTML code for borders around your image. Stick to your routine, write blog posts quickly, and move on to promotion.

5. Follow a Blog Promotion Plan

“What you do after you create your content is what truly counts.” Gary Vaynerchuk

You can waste a lot of time here or we can do it all for you. Find out how to get the blog promotion monkey off your back for half the price of a Virtual Assistant.

If you are going to do this yourself, create a routine. We call these Standard Operating Procedures (SOP). Not only will you not waste time dreaming up some newfangled way to get more retweets, you’ll have a routine you can hand off to a freelancer or staff when you’re ready.

There you go: how to write blog posts faster. In fact, less than 60 minutes. And, guess what? That’s how long this one took.

Now here’s how you can help me! Click on the social share button (on the left) and help your friends learn how to write blogs faster – in 60 minutes or less.